Thursday, 5 January 2012

PHOBIA

PHOBIA

Phobia is an excessive fear of objects or specific situations which are often unreasonable and not based on reality. The term “phobia” comes from the word “phobi” meaning fear or anxiety that is not rational, the perceived and experienced by someone. Phobia is a disorder characterized by persistent fear and irrational to a particular object or situation. Phobia symptoms can occur while being exposed to that particular object or situation or sometimes even thinking of the feared object can lead to response.

A phobia (Greek: Phobos, means “morbid fear") is termed as a persistent fear of an object or situation. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely, the sufferer will endure the situation/object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities. And the victim requires Social phobia help and treatments

What are phobias?

Fear is a form of anxiety triggered by a situation or an object. We know what it’s like to be afraid in certain situations and change our behaviour accordingly – avoiding dark alleys and standing back from the edge of a cliff. These are understandable responses to situations where we might be harmed. When there is a real threat, for example if you are about to be attacked, fear is a sensible and realistic response, and your body will release adrenaline and prepare for ‘fight or flight’.

A fear becomes a phobia when you have an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation (eg. going outside) or object (eg. buttons). You will often begin to organize your life around avoiding the thing that is causing you anxiety.

What are the symptoms?

If you have a phobia, you usually won’t have any symptoms until you face the situation or object that you fear. If your phobia is very severe, then even thinking about the object of your phobia can provoke anxiety. Some of the most common signs and symptoms of phobia are in the diagram below.

These symptoms can make you feel more anxious, which releases more adrenaline (see above), and this vicious circle can lead to a full-blown panic attack. Although these feelings will pass, you may feel stressed and frightened by them, and this can make you feel out of control and overwhelmed. Afterwards, you may feel depressed and embarrassed about it. All this may make you nervous and anxious about being on your own and having to cope with such an experience.

The most common symptoms of phobia are:

·Dizziness

·Breathlessness

·Nausea

·A sense of unreality

·Fear of dying

Types of phobias are:

Although there are hundreds of kinds of phobias but basically all these phobias are part of the 3 types of phobia, which according to the book DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual forMental DisorderIV)

1.Simple or specific phobia (phobia of an object / certain circumstances) as in animals, enclosed places, heights, and others.

3.Complex phobia (phobia of crowded places or situations and open for example in public transport / mall), people like this could have been scared out of the house.

Specific (simple) phobias

These are phobias about one thing; for example, spiders or flying. They often develop in childhood or adolescence, and for many people they will lessen as they get older.

It is difficult to group specific phobias into categories; this list shows some of the more common ones, but there are many more:

·Animal phobias, e.g. dogs, insects, snakes, rodents

·Natural environment, e.g. heights, water, darkness

·Situational, e.g. flying, going to the dentist, tunnels

·Body-based phobias, e.g. blood, vomit, injections

·Sexual phobias.

If you have a specific phobia about something which you do not come into contact with in everyday life then it might be easier to cope with than a phobia about something which you have to face often. However, this is not always the case. If you have a very severe phobia it can cause fear and anxiety even when the object or situation is not present.

Complex phobias

Complex phobias tend to be more disruptive and disabling than specific phobias and often develop after adolescence. Two of the most common complex phobias are social phobia and agoraphobia.

Social phobia

If you have social phobia (sometimes called social anxiety) then you will feel very anxious when you have to be around people. You might worry that they are going to be critical of you, and that you will do something embarrassing. For some people, social phobia can be connected to one specific activity, such as public speaking, but it can be much more severe. It can become incredibly debilitating and a seemingly impossible challenge to engage in everyday activities, like shopping, eating out or meeting friends.

Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is widely thought to be a fear of open spaces, but it is more complex than this. The essential feature of agoraphobia is that you will feel anxious about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult, embarrassing, or in which help may not be available in the event of having a panic attack. This anxiety will then result in you avoiding of a variety of situations that may include: being alone, inside or outside the home; being in a crowd of people; travelling by car, bus or plane; or being on a bridge or in a lift.

The cause of Phobia:

Phobias can be caused by a variety of things. In general, a person becomes a phobia because it had experienced great fear or personal experience with feelings of shame or guilt that they then pressed into the subconscious. Traumatic events in childhood are considered as one possible cause of the phobia.

In most cases people are able to recognize that their fear is irrational and overcome it before it becomes phobia. According toDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, only 10% of reported cases become lifelong illnesses.

There doesn’t seem to be one particular cause of phobias, but there are several factors that might play a role.

·For some people the phobia can be linked to a particular incident or trauma; for example, a child who experiences a lot of turbulence on a plane might develop a phobia about flying.

·Phobias can be learned responses, picked up in early life – you might develop the same specific phobia as a parent or older sibling. It has also been shown that factors in the family environment, such as parents who are very worried or anxious, can have an effect on the way you cope with anxiety in later life.

·There does seem to be some evidence that genetics can play a role – some people appear to be born with a tendency to be more anxious than others.

You might find that it is helpful to try and work out a specific cause for your own phobia, but you might equally feel that there is not a simple explanation; either way, avoiding the object or situation that is making you phobic, will make your fear worse.

Here are the top 10 most common phobias:

Arachnophobia– This refers to the fear of spiders. In the most extreme cases, arachnophobes are even afraid of images of spiders.

Social Phobia– If you are fearful of social situations, you have social phobia. It is an excessive fear of being scrutinized and humiliated.

Agoraphobia– Agoraphobes are fearful of inescapable situations, and they prefer to stay at home, where they feel the safest.

Aerophobia– This term is applied to people who are afraid of flying in an airplane.

Claustrophobia– If you are affected by claustrophobia, you will be fearful of confined spaces. You will try to stay awayfrom trains, elevators, and small cupboards under the stairs.

Acrophobia– Acrophobia refers to the fear of heights. If it results in panic attacks, it can be very dangerous.

Carcinophobia– Carcinophobes are so afraid of contracting cancer that they will suspect that they have the disease just because they touched an affected person.

Emetophobia– This phobia means the fear of vomit.

Brontophobia– Brontophobia is also called astraphobia, and it means fear of thunders. If you are affected by this phobia, you may experience panic attack and breathing difficulty when you hear the sound of thunder or see lightning.

Necrophobia– Necrophobes are fearful of death and things that are associated with death, such as corpses and coffins.

What help is available?

There are different ways on treating phobias and the treatment mainly depends on how strong the phobia is and the way it occurs to the person. Different options are available to help you, and there is no right or wrong way to approach treatment. Many people who experience phobias use self-help techniques, including relaxation, for example, to manage and overcome the symptoms. Self-help options can also be used at the same time as accessing professional support.

One of the treatments isexposure to the fear. A person is forced to face his/her fear without having a chance to escape. This aims to prove the person that his/her fear is harmless and irrational and helps to overcome it.

If the person is unable to handle exposure treatment then the other way of treating phobia which is often used is counter-conditioning. In this treatment the person learns how to react to phobia: various stress revealing and relaxation techniques to replace anxiety and fear. This new behavior is incompatible with the previous panicked response, so the phobic response gradually fades.

Following Are The Types Of Phobias Treatments:

·Behavior Therapy

·Cognitive Therapy

·Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT)

·Relaxation Techniques

·Hypnotherapy

·Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) – Phobia Treatment

·Energy Psychology - Phobia Treatment

If you want support from a healthcare professional, then the first place to go would normally be your GP. Your GP should explain all of your options to you, and your views should be taken into account before any treatment is started. There are three main types of treatment recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for anxiety and panic disorders (there are no guidelines specifically written about phobia):

·Talking treatments

·Medication

·Self-help – biblio-therapy, support groups, exercise etc.

TALKING TREATMENTS

There are different types of talking treatments, such as counselling and psychotherapy (see Mind’s booklet Understanding talking treatmentsfor more information).

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a form of counselling. It aims to identify connections between thoughts, feelings and behaviour, and to help develop practical skills to manage them. There is considerable evidence to suggest that CBT is especially effective in dealing with phobias. (See Mind’s booklet Making sense of cognitive behaviour therapy). The behavioural element of CBT (also known as exposure therapy or desensitisation) is recommended to give you practice in facing your fears. This involves gradually exposing you, in a safe and controlled way, to the object or situation that you fear. The most commonly used exposure therapy involves gradual exposure in your imagination at first, and then in reality. For example, if you had a phobia about going to the dentist, you might read about the dentist; then look at a picture of a dentist’s chair; then sit in the waiting room; then talk to the dentist; and then, finally, sit in a dental chair.

Through repeated experiences of facing your fear, you feel an increasing sense of control over your phobia. This sense of control over the situation and yourself is the most important benefit of exposure therapy, you will feel less anxious and the phobia begins to lose its power.

Exposure therapy can cause distress if it is not carefully managed, so it is important that you understand the treatment fully and feel comfortable with the additional support you have; for example, from your therapist.

NICE endorses computerised CBT to treat panic and phobia. You can access it on a home computer, using a programme called ‘Fearfighter’. Research has shown computerised CBT can be particularly helpful if you experience social phobia or agoraphobia as it can be delivered in your own home.

Some phobias, such as fear of flying or driving, are so common that there are therapists who specialise in their treatment. The number of treatments you will need depends on the severity of your phobia, but exposure-based therapy is usually brief. Some phobias can often be treated in as little as two to four sessions. Sometimes a single, long session is all that is needed.

MEDICATION

Medication is not usually recommended for treating phobias because talking therapies are often successful and do not have the same side-effects. However, short-term drug therapy can be useful in dealing with the effects of a phobia, such as anxiety. Currently, there are three classes of drugs considered useful in managing anxiety. These are:

·Antidepressants

·Tranquillisers (benzodiazepines)

·Beta-blockers.

AntidepressantsThe drugs prescribed most commonly are SSRI antidepressants, such as paroxetine (trade name Seroxat), citalopram (Cipramil) and escitalopram (Cipralex). These drugs may have side effects, including nausea, headache, sleep disturbance, stomach upsets and increased anxiety. They may also cause sexual problems.

The reversible MAOI antidepressant, moclobemide (Manerix), is also licensed as a treatment for social phobia. MAOI antidepressants interact dangerously with certain foods, and a warning about which foods to avoid is given with the drugs in the Patient Information Leaflet (PIL). Other side effects include sleep disturbances, dizziness, stomach problems, headaches, restlessness and agitation.

The tricyclic antidepressant clomipramine (Anafranil) may also be given to treat phobias. The side effects can include a dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation, drowsiness and dizziness. For more information, see Making sense of antidepressants.

Tranquillisers
In the past, people may have been given tranquillising drugs from the benzodiazepine group, such as diazepam (Valium), to reduce anxiety. This should now be limited to short periods of treatment for those people who are experiencing very severe anxiety. See Making sense of sleeping pills and minortranquillisersfor more information on benzodiazepine medicines.

Beta-blockers
Beta-blockers are drugs that act on the cardiovascular system (heart and blood pressure), and may be given to people with anxiety to reduce physical symptoms, such as palpitations. They don’t treat the anxiety itself, but slow the heart and reduce blood pressure. Their names all end with ‘-olol’, and the one most commonly used for anxiety is propranolol (Inderal). The main side effects include effects on the heart, stomach troubles, cold fingers, tiredness and upset sleep.

SELF-HELP

Relaxation techniques

Following a relaxation technique can help you to reverse the effects of anxiety. Rather than preparing your body for ‘fight or flight’ you can help it to slow down, lower blood pressure and limit the amount of adrenaline that is released. There are many different relaxation techniques available, ranging from meditation to breathing control to stretching. See The Mind guide to managing stressfor more information.

Self-help groups

Joining a self-help group allows you to share common experiences and methods of coping with others who are facing similar challenges. It is sometimes very comforting to know that you are not alone, and other people may be able to suggest different ways of coping. Your local Mind or No Panic can help you to identify a suitable group, see ‘Useful contacts’ on for more information.

Bibliotherapy (using self-help books)

There is evidence to suggest that using a self-help book can be very helpful for people coping with phobias. Many are based on the principles of CBT and will help you to develop your own program to reduce anxiety and make it easier to face your fear.

Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is often cited by people who have phobias as a helpful technique for relieving the symptoms. The Complementary and Natural Healthcare council maintains a register of hypnotherapists who have trained to national standard level, see ’Useful contacts’ for more information.

Here are some of the strangest and most uncommon phobias:

Caligynephobia- abnormal fear of beautiful women

Bibliophobia – is a common phobia that most people don’t even know that they have. Bibliophobia is commonly known as the fear of books (but that’s not the whole story!). Some of us think we have it when we try to do our homework. The symptoms of this phobia include breathlessness, dizziness, dry mouth, excessive sweating, nausea, feeling sick, heart palpitations, inability to speak of think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control, a sensation of detachment from reality of a full blown anxiety attack.

Avi0phobia – 9% of Americans has this phobia which is an extreme fear of flying in an airplane.

Agateophobia – fair of insanity. Agateophobia is created by the unconscious mind as a protective mechanism. Agateophobia develops at some point in your past, where there was likely an event linking insanity or becoming insane and emotional trauma.

Enetophobia- fear of pins or needles

Hellenologophobia – fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology. It is usually caused by an intense negative experience from your past. But your mind can also create that fear seemingly without basis you know your hellenologophobia is illogical. But it has persisted because your subconscious has attached the idea of greek terms or complex scientific terminology to all those negative emotions

Chrometophobia – fear of money.

Alliumphobia – fear of garlic.

Ephebiphobia- fear of teenagers. The fear of youth affects the entire Western world.Sociologist Ray Oldenburg has attributed the generation gap and the “increasing segregation of youth from adults in American society” to “adult estrangement and fear of youth.

Androphobia – is an abnormal fear of men. Androphobia is often related to traumatic events in the sufferer’s past.

HIV phobia – hundreds of people in China believe they might have a new disease with HIV-like symptoms and fear they are being lied to when their diagnostic tests come back negative.

Hierophobia- Fear of priests or sacred things

Hypnophobia- Fear of sleep or of being hypnotized

Cibophobia – fear of food, is a relatively complicated phobia that can rapidly spiral into an obsession. People with this phobia are sometimes mistakenly thought to suffer from anorexia, a dangerous eating disorder. The main difference is that those with anorexia fear the effects of food on body image, while those with cibophobia are actually afraid of the food itself.

Macrophobia – overwhelming, persistent fear of long waits. The macrophobic person may experience intense fear and discomfort when confronted with any situation that involves having to wait.

Leukophobia- Fear of the color white, it could be white anything from shoes, white house, white car, white hat, and even white people.

Kosmikophobia- Fear of cosmic phenomenon

Heliophobia – fear of sun. It is a problem that afflicts hundreds of people, but one that suffers from a lack of true research. The Pacific Health Center suggested that many people have been staying away from the sun because of growing fears about skin cancer. This is not technically heliophobia, simply an unfounded and illogical solution. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (if it includes an intense fear of getting skin cancer) can also cause Heliophobia.

Geumaphobia – fear of taste.

Xenoglossophobia- Fear of foreign languages

Uranophobia or Ouranophobia- Fear of heaven

Peladophobia- Fear of bald people

Euphobia - fear of hearing good news.

Mnemophobia – fear of memories. People with this fear tend to worry about having memories (especially bad ones) or losing memories. This phobia is becoming more popular with the increase of Alzheimers in the elder.

Dextrophobia – an abnormal fear of objects on the right side of the body.

Onomatophobia/nomatophobia – an irrational fear of a certain name or hearing a certain word or words because they may have special significance.

Optophobia- Fear of opening one’s eyes

Dutchphobia- fear of the Dutch people and culture. Mostly people afraid of Dutch fair Dutch customs and traditional clothing

Octophobia – Fear of the figure 8. Like all fears and phobias, octophobia is created by the unconscious mind as a protective mechanism. At some point in your past, there was likely an event linking the figure 8 and emotional trauma. Whilst the original catalyst may have been a real-life scare of some kind, the condition can also be triggered by myriad, benign events like movies, TV, or perhaps seeing someone else experience trauma.

Acousticophobia – intense fear of sound or noise, sometimes even your own voice.

Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation

Dentophobia- Fear of dentists

Omphalophobia- Fear of belly buttons

LIST OF PHOBIA

A:

Ablutophobia - Fear of washing or bathing.
Acarophobia - Fear of itching or of the insects that cause itching.
Acerophobia - Fear of sourness.
Achluophobia - Fear of darkness.
Acousticophobia - Fear of noise.
Aeroacrophobia - Fear of open high places.
Aeronausiphobia - Fear of vomiting secondary to airsickness.
Aerophobia - Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airborne noxious substances.
Agliophobia - Fear of pain.
Agoraphobia - Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place. Fear of crowds.

2 comments:

I hope all is well with you. Healthline just published an infographic detailing the physical and social effects of anxiety. This is an interactive chart allowing the reader to pick the side effect they want to learn more about.

You can see the overview of the report here: http://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/effects-on-body

Our users have found our guide very useful and I thought it would be a great resource for your page: http://ornatethinking.blogspot.com/2012/01/phobia.html

I would appreciate it if you could review our request and consider adding this visual representation of the effects of anxiety to your site or sharing it on your social media feeds.

MatruGarbha Sanskar Foundation is a Pregnancy care organization based in Pune. Matru Garbh Sanskar will help you to bond with your baby before he/she is born. We offer 1) Preconception Guidence Program.2) Garbha Sanskar and Pregnancy care.3) Labour and child birth.4) Postnatal care for mother and baby (post delivery).